Cristian Merino
EN 101A Spring 2013
Professor Streamer-Veneruso
Essay 1- Final Draft

GATEWAY Being high feels great but being addicted sucks. While I was in middle school sitting in health class learning about what drugs can do to you scared shitless I told myself I would never succumb to the peer pressure. But of course I had the wrong friends. Every day after school I would go hang out with my friends Neil, Eli and Mako, they were already in high school, they would always throw parties but I would never go. One day when I had gone to Neil’s house they were about to smoke weed and they asked me if I wanted join but I said no but at the same time I didn’t want to be left out so I went. After that day smoking would become a regular thing for us. The more we would hang out the more bad things we would do and the more drugs we would use. Once I got to high school they moved so I didn’t get to hang out with them as much but even so I made more friends and that meant more peer pressure. I never wanted to give into peer pressure but I was in high school, I was just a teenager trying to fit it. During my freshman year I had cut back on smoking and I just wanted to do well in school. School was boring and difficult at times and that sort of got me to continue smoking. It was just weed what could it do? It wasn’t until my sophomore year that I really gave into the peer pressure when I got invited to this party at some girl’s house. It was a wild party and all I could see was everyone smoking or drinking and then my friend came up to me and told me to try these pills he had, I didn’t know what they were but I still took them. I began to hallucinate and feel sick and I started to act crazy and I couldn’t control my own actions but I didn’t care all I cared about was what people thought about me. And of course who wouldn’t want to be known as the guy who went crazy at a party. As the year continued I hung out with less people but my new bad habits stayed right by my side. I was failing most of my classes and skipping almost every day. School was just not my favorite place to be. The only time I was even remotely enjoying myself was when I was with my friends partying or when I was by myself. Every day that I wasn’t getting high or drunk was an awful black day and everything was an excuse for anger. I wanted to get away from everyone and everything but where could I go? Junior year was just a mess of things, I fell more into addiction and I didn’t know what do. Eventually I felt like drugs were the only thing there for me when everybody else wasn’t. I guess that’s probably why I did them for so long. Every time I would go out it was only to go to a friend’s house and smoke, get drunk, pop pills or snort cocaine. And every time I did I felt like I was giving my life away and forgetting about everyone that ever cared for me. I would always ask myself “is this what the rest of my life is going to be like?” but I never had an answer. By the end of the school year I was reunited with my old friend Neil. Having my best friend with me didn’t make things any better, he was worse than me. All we would do was go to parties and stay out all night. It was fun at first but after a while it was pointless and it was leading me nowhere. Having this “disease” was not easy and wanting to get rid of it was going to be difficult. I tried so many times to stop but no matter where I went I